American Symphony is groundbreaking.

| Jan 9, 2025

It’s clear the film spared no expense in following Batiste during the year 2022, as he explored the contours of his musical inspiration while battling personal challenges in and out of the public eye.

| Original Score: A | Aug 10, 2024

A love story about how the creative process creates both music and healing.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 17, 2024

Batiste and Jaouad are intensely grounded – they have to be – and as such, their humour and their joy have greater weight.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 20, 2024

It's not just for Batiste fans. There have been few better movies about the creative process.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 31, 2024

Pleasing documentary--a well-conceived biopic on the multi-talented musician Jon Batiste.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 21, 2024

It's a wholesome, harrowing, and inspirational journey. And also the beginning of a new chapter marked by a cognizant potential for implosion. But it's easy to believe he'll be okay.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 19, 2024

American Symphony, moreover, climaxes with a scene that’s every producer’s dream and nightmare...In that moment, though, American Symphony finds documentary gold.

| Jan 15, 2024

Filmmaker Matthew Heineman balances the two sides of the film effectively, capturing Batiste's grief and inner conflict.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 13, 2024

This is a great movie about music, musicians and two people dealing with challenges with grace, courage and love.

| Original Score: A | Jan 7, 2024

I cried easily and often watching American Symphony, a testament not only to human creativity but to humanity's capacity for love.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 27, 2023

That we’re too often showed Batiste winning awards and getting standing ovations while [his partner] battles cancer in hospital over any real meaningly observations from her makes it particularly hard to latch onto.

| Dec 22, 2023

Amid all the emotions devoted to what it means to have one’s life feel in jeopardy, we also see a compelling love story about two people not letting anything get in the way of what they have.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 21, 2023

American Symphony is an emotional ride and, ultimately, a story of love and support.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 9, 2023

The glimpses we have of the performance of American Symphony tease the power the composer has as a creative talent and make this one of the better documentaries of the year.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 7, 2023

Heineman captures moments both sweeping and subtle in Batiste’s life; in one scene Batiste guides a room full of dozens of musicians with enthusiasm, while in the next he faces depression.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 6, 2023

American Symphony is a real love story, not about first kisses, weddings, first homes, and gender-reveal parties, but about surviving together, about going through the best days and the worst days of their lives at the exact same time.

| Dec 6, 2023

This is a film that captures how art isn’t just how we heal; it’s how we live.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 6, 2023

Heineman treats his subjects with respect and reserve. There are no false moments of drama to give the film a crescendo, no talking heads giving us context. It’s intimate, quiet, lovely, and, melancholy aside, there are moments of connection and joy.

| Original Score: A-minus | Dec 4, 2023

The doc is an intimate look into the duality of triumph and suffering, the vibrancy and the vulnerability of life, a candid and endearing love story.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 4, 2023